Boondocks 8 Year Port Finished Bourbon

This is the port finish section of my barrel finished bourbon bracket. This is a blind taste test of Boondocks vs Breckenridge. Winner to face against Isaac Bowman, which beat out the OG barrel finisher, Angel’s Envy. My tasting of Boondocks: The nose is very fruity. There’s cherry, grape, caramel. It smells like a sangria. It is really good. This is where it starts to fall apart a bit. There is honestly not much left to say about this whiskey. It tastes like a very well made port. Finish is mild, low burn, and porty. If you poured this for someone and told them it was port, they’d probably believe you and get confused why there were getting drunk so fast. Even attempting to split up body and finish is complicated, but if I had to try, I’d say there’s a vanilla flavor that is more prevalent in the body and a brown sugar that pops up slightly in the finish. The scents you get on the nose really are the stars here, and attempting to judge the underlying whiskey proved futile for me. I find this interesting given that this is an 8-year aged bourbon. I’d expect it to have enough self-identity that a port finish would be more like a haircut and less like a nose job, but here we are. At 8 years, either the base juice just got overpowered by a delicious port, or the distiller found a blend that really delivered on the port at the expense of the bourbon’s natural identity. Best comparison I can think of: this whiskey feels very much like smothering bread with a really delicious cheese and then trying to judge the merits of the bread. That said, I love what they did here, because I love sangria and I love port. It is genuinely a delicious drink, and given that I paid $20 for a 375mL from an online retailer in CA, I’d never hesitate to buy this one locally on a shelf should it show up. Hell, it may be close to $15 normally. Are there more complex port finished bourbons out there? For sure. But this is a fair contribution to that whiskey space from Boondocks. However, in this blind taste test, I give the win to Breckenridge. Equally good, but more interesting. I look forward to pairing Breckenridge vs Isaac Bowman in the near future. I went back and compared this to AE (think consolation match), and AE wins decidedly. If Boondocks is normally $15-20 for a 375mL, then it has a place in the market. If they are (or will be) out there for $40 for a 750, I’d never buy another one. Worth a try, worth a buy at $15-20, but at dead last in this port-finished competition, not worth a buy at $40.

7Nose: Sweet, sugar, almost candy and wine. Very soft. A touch of cinnamon and cherry and even a little orange zest. When I put my nose all the way in I get a lot of cinnamon, almost all cinnamon. There is almost no alcohol burn to the nose. Maybe I am to used to barrel proof. Mouth feel: Not oily, almost drying (typically hate that). Soft and light with almost no burn, (comparable to coke). Tingles the tongue, almost dances. Tannins are there and drying but not bad. The orange and then cinnamon take over quickly on the finish. Taste: Like the nose, sweet and sugar, between white and brown. Some caramel but not as much as most bourbons. Dark cheery, not maraschino (sweet but with a bitter kick). Raisins (sun-maid- the thick sugar). The orange zest and cinnamon shows in the finish. The finish and mouth feel are also fairly long and enjoyable. My conclusion: This is like having an old-fashion in a bottle! Out of my near 100 tastings it is in my top 3. It held up to a cigar. It is an easy sipper neat. This can be a daily sipper watching TV or for a special event. I need to try it with ice. Hang on… Still tasted good but the subtle flavors were gone and you were left with a colder but good tasting bourbon. I wrote this and then saw that it had mixed reviews. Everyone is different I guess. I have had polarizing bourbons before and can normally tell why. For me, this didn’t fit in that category. Price??? It was worth it to me. I have never purchased the same bottle twice and this could be my first. Edit: From what I remember it has similarities to Blood Oath 5 mainly the orange zest.

Nose: Vanilla, Luxardo cherries, molasses, oak. Well integrated front to back. Raw flour. Cream. Faint whisps of char. Bananas, apricots, persimmons, plums. Baked pears with cinnamon and the smallest pinch of nutmeg. Dusty corn buried deep. Palate: Vanilla, oak, molasses, and port cask - the port is on display with more of that Luxardo cherry syrupy sweetness. Apricots, persimmons, and pears coming through, with a dash of hot cinnamon now. Tannin and barrel bitter join the party. Finish starts off with plums and caramel apples with baking spices. There's definitely some rye in this mash - getting some dried basil, thyme, and dill while the denser flavors slowly evaporate. Tail end leaves some bitterness with vanilla bean ice cream, figs, and slight nuttiness. Other notes: I've always like this stuff. It's not perfect by any stretch - I'd personally love to see a longer initial maturation with maybe a touch more char on the barrels, but what's on display in this glass is quite good. Also a good example of a lower proof not being a bad thing. While this might be interesting at 100+, I don't think I'd be able to do more than a glass or two. Maybe not something I always have in my bar, but a fun one to revisit from time to time.

Day 3 of my bourbon advent calendar, and I'm excited for this one. Nose: Creamy banana, molasses, and fresh baked vanilla cupcakes. Palate: Oak up front, and then lead into an explosion of vanilla, butterscotch, and chocolate covered cherries. The nose of the bourbon is heavenly, and safe to say that i went there while nosing this one. Angel's Envy had nothing on this bourbon. It's such a full flavored, and sweeter whiskey that you can pour anyone at the end of the night for a night cap and i think they will love it!

Nearing the end of my bottle, so I figured it was finally time to write a quick review. It goes down smooth and it's nice to sip on, but for me it's a little bit of a one-trick pony on the palate. I get a very sweet caramelly corn taste, and that's really about it. The taste lingers around and I want there to be more of a finish, but nope, still just that sweet corn. It does taste very nice, but unfortunately it's a bit underwhelming for a $50 bottle. I wouldn't buy it again at MSRP.

4.0 Stars - Excellent; 750 ml bottle What a fun discovery! This was a random purchase on the recommendation of a store owner in Kentucky. No internet, no reviews, no research. Just a conversation, person to person. This is like Angels Envy or Amador, but sooooo much better. I enjoyed this bottle, start to finish.